Rep. Harris on Zimmerman verdict: 'Get over it'

Jul. 16, 2013

Rep. Andy Harris, who represents Maryland's 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives, said Tuesday of the George Zimmerman verdict that people should just 'get over it.' / USA TODAY file photo

Written by

Catalina Camia

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Eastern Shore’s congressman has this message for people fixating over the verdict in George Zimmerman’s trial: “Get over it.”

“We’re hung up on this one case, where this one fellow was, in fact, found not guilty by a jury. That’s the way the American law system works. Get over it,” Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., said Tuesday on WMAL radio.

Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, was acquitted Saturday in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a Florida teenager. Trayvon’s death and Zimmerman’s trial have been at the center of a national debate over racial profiling.

Harris, a conservative who was first elected in 2010, also suggested there has been too much news media coverage — especially on TV — about the trial and its aftermath.

“We missed the forest through the trees to a large extent with all the huge issues going on in the world,” Harris said.

Attorney General Eric Holder has vowed to proceed with a civil rights inquiry into Trayvon’s death, but it is not yet known whether President Obama’s Justice Department will file charges against Zimmerman.

Harris said the Justice Department investigation is “purely political” and a sign that the Obama administration’s lawyers are “doing things they shouldn’t be doing and not doing things they should be doing.”

“Going after a person under our system who was found not guilty … it’s incredulous,” he said.

Harris’ remarks about the Zimmerman trial on the Mornings on the Mall show on WMAL came after a lengthy discussion about health care and Republican opposition to the law signed by President Obama. Harris is an anesthesiologist by training. He won a divisive GOP primary in 2008 by defeating moderate Rep. Wayne Gilchrest.